Day 5 - Cooperation Is the Key

[twc_admin]

Today's lesson was on cooperation - bending, sharing, and working to have a team, unity, and not be so divided. To find common goals and themes.

What are your thoughts?

Feel free to complete this exercise:

Christians in OUR CHURCH have this in common with CHRISTIANS EVERYWHERE:

• Common need
• Common enemy
• Common purpose
• Common focus
• Common orders
• Common praise
• Common goal
• Common victory
• Common joy
• Common worship place
• Common Lord
• Common peace

Look forward to the discussion. (PS: again, I'm not getting this thread posted until after noon, EST - anyone can start the new threads)

[Wannabe a Worshiper]

One thing really stood out as I did today's lesson. One of the most beautiful and rewarding examples of Christians from diverse backgrounds coming together in unity has been the last seven weeks right here . The dozen or so of us who participate regularly have set aside the things that could divide us, and focused on the comon issues we have. The spirit has been great, we have laughed with each other, cried, shared, and learned. Though most of us will never meet, we have become a family. Isn't that what "church" is all about?

[MimsiGal]

This is an idea that has been scratching at my brain for a few weeks - and the need to blog about it at times is overwhelming... but I don't feel that I have the words yet to express what I feel and/or see.

WHY... that is the question that comes to my mind... why has the church had these divisions since the beginning? I'm currently reading "Out of the Storm" - a biography of Martin Luther. The church was already fractured before a HUGE division separated it. THe early church had moments where they had to step in and speak of people who were leading the sheep astray through added in doctrine, even the Synagogue was a place of division - Pharisees, Sadducee's, and the other Jewish sects.

We all serve the same God - a God who created us, who loves us, who sent His Son to die the worst possible death to take our sins away. Why do we have to fight so much over man-made and man-added rules?

I loved the exercise of finding the commonalities within all of the different churches of today. We have a common enemy - the devil - we have a common purpose - to go out and tell all of creation about Jesus. Our goal should be to point people back to God...

So why such division?

[MandoRon]

Interesting timing for me. Sunday, my pastor is going to preach a sermon on unity. About being one church, serving one God, with one vision. On March 1, no less...

Dwayne Moore has some useful thoughts on page 125 about control. I think a lot of us struggle with submitting and giving up control over musical style in the church. We have such strong opinions that it's hard.

The quote from Marva J. Dawn hit home.

"It is impossible for our inner selves to be prepared to be open to God and receptive to God's Word until we silence our sinful selves - our efforts to be in control, to manipulate everything and everyone to accomplish our own purposes.

For about a year and a half, I had significant control over song selection at my church. Then about a year ago, the staff (I'm just a musician) decided they wanted total control and completely cut me out of the loop. It's been hard not having any say anymore. Especially when I disagree...

[Smitty]

Great thoughts, Wannabe (though I think maybe you should change your "handle"..."Proudtobe" springs to mind )

I hear you, Mimsi, about our seeming NEED for division...most times it just makes my gut and my head hurt.

I can tell you all this much honestly...EVERY time I have done ANYTHING worship music related with a TRUE spirit of cooperation...I have been blessed.

Smitty

[Rogenia]

Wannabe, I could not have said that better. One Body and many members. I have been praying that God allow me to be able to worship and praise Him with a song one day. When I get through reading what you'll have to share in music, song, prayer, praise and worship - I be feeling that I am right along with everyone. Although I have no position or muscial incline (smile) I can not hold a note. I have been able to share everyone spirit in Christ. Rogenia

[Mike S]

All of the posts were amazing. The quote by Dietrich in the book resonated with me as well today.

A group of musicians from the area serve on various retreat teams here. We come from many churches and serve together. We serve in larger Worship gatherings of the church. We are the church so it is a part of the larger whole. There is a sense of community within this community. We serve one another as best we can.

When the many combine as one from all over the area you can lead worship and get about 3 words of a song out before the congregation sings over the top of group leading worship. This is why I resonate when reading what Dietrich is quoted in the book by Dwayne.

[hisfirewithin]

I struggle with cooperation in this day and age. There's too much at stake to compromise important distinctives and values. Doctrine matters. And I won't cooperate with churches that I feel preach a different Jesus than the one in the Bible. I won't work with a church that ok's homosexuality. I won't work with a church that doesn't believe in the Trinity. I even struggle with churches that don't embrace the fullness of the Holy Spirit(though our church has partnered with and has good relationships with most of the local non-charismatic churches, so this one is not a deal-breaker for me). But I think as important as unity and cooperation are, standing for fundamental truths of Scripture, Theology, and Biblical authority is as important. And today, honestly, we are way too focused on "come together" and not nearly focused enough on "This is right, this is wrong." Think about it...the mormons have the "burning in the bosom." Experience, feelings, and unity are not enough, we NEED to hold on to the doctrines that prove our faith to be justified! So, if we unite, we should only unite under absolute truth and nothing else.

Sorry for rambling...I guess I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder about the "Easy Unity" movement, and what it comes at the expense of.

[RuthABraun]

We have begun a rotating worship leader schedule and yesterday's leader is brand-new at leading, although she's been playing and singing in worship teams for a while. Anyway, her style is totally different from mine and from what we've traditionally done in our praise sets. We usually sound more like Desperation Band (well, if DB was recorded on vinyl and the record set out on the sidewalk on a very hot day!) but she had us do an acoustic set with hand drums, no electrics except bass, and piano (no synth). She also rearranged several of the songs and gave them completely different grooves. We were a bit (well, maybe a lot) hesitant at first. We could have vetoed her ideas and just done things the same old way, but we decided to cooperate not only with her leadership but with the vision that God had given her for that day's worship. Things go so much easier when you cooperate with God, don't you agree? There was a great blessing in it for us as a music team and for the congregation as they were able to worship in a quieter, more introspective way. In our conscious decision to come together to play this music to the Lord and not to our own sensibilities, we yielded a bit of what we wanted to control and gave it back to God for Him to do with as He will. This wan't supposed to be a discussion of musical style, but it was such a combination of style and cooperation I thought I'd write about it.

Amen to the discussion about not yielding to issues like the Trinity and homosexuality in the church; there is definitely a gaping chasm there between God's church and man's. I think it gets harder to cooperate when it's a fine line. No church is perfect, and we may have to do like we do when we choose a spouse -- find one with faults you can live with! Why do we allow issues like infant baptism, use of musical instruments, frequency of communion, governmental structure to tear our churches apart?